Daily Thought for Sunday 13th April 2025
“ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out’.”
Luke 19:39-40 (NRSV)
Let the stones cry out
Colin D. Johnston
The Scout band led the way, the young women and men beating the drums and playing the pipes as the group processed through the narrow streets and alleyways of the Nazareth Suq (market). The clergy from the various denominations were in flowing robes, while the marchers waved olive branches and palms. Whenever we passed a church, the congregants would flow out to join in the procession. It was a scene replicated throughout all the Palestinian towns in the Galilee. It was all very ecumenical, and there was a strong sense of camaraderie as we processed around the town.
In my years of living in Israel and Palestine I would participate in many such processions in different towns, all of which were a terrific witness. We were, of course, marking the procession that Jesus and his disciples would have made from the Mount of Olives into the city of Jerusalem. Jesus was re-enacting the prophecy from Zechariah, making a powerful statement, riding the donkey of peace. The onlookers cheered him as their liberator, come to rid the city of the hated Romans, come to bring freedom. But it was a different kind of freedom Jesus would bring.
Their cheers would turn to “Crucify!”, and in these same Palestinian towns and villages there would be another procession on the Friday, as people would take it in turns to carry a cross and, later in the day, a coffin.
These days, with death and destruction in the Middle East, the Palestinians living in Israel tend to keep their heads down, and their celebrations are more muted. But then, we can be the same. Sometimes it is easier for us to keep our heads down, keep quiet rather than speak out on issues of justice and peace.
If only the stones were to cry out…!
Shall we pray?:
God, our hope for victory,
whom we constantly betray;
grant us to recognise your coming
that in our clamour
there may be commitment,
and in our silence
the very stones may cry aloud
in your name. Amen
(Janet Morley: All Desires Known)
Colin D. Johnston is minister of Cheviot Churches. He spent 25 years working as a mission partner in Africa and the Middle East.